With the expansion of the Internet as a social tool, the number and types of sites that facilitate social networking and information sharing have greatly increased. Among the most popular of these sites include those that provide the ability to create a unique profile that link to a social network (MYSPACE™ and FRIENDSTER™), those that provide online picture albums (FLICKR™) and those that allow users to create a “blog” (BLOGSPOT™) that might be accessed by any individual with internet access. The exact form and function of these sites vary, however they all tend to provide some means of establishing an individual page or set of pages, and allow a user to connect their page or pages to those of other users in some form of a network. One nearly ubiquitous feature of these types of sites is that they provide the ability of a user to put on display various photos either embedded within a page or within a gallery. It is standard on these pages for advertisements, generally in the form of a banner or text, to appear in the area around the picture. These advertisements are typically either sold by the individual or the host site, and are targeted primarily based upon a user's profile characteristics, text on the web page or browsing history of the viewer
Certain social networking sites, such as FLICKR™, which is a digital photo-sharing website and web-services suite, allow users to “tag” a photograph or areas of a photograph with a word or words. These photo tags provide an easy and convenient way of exploring Flickr's photograph database by navigating among related keywords (tags) which people attach to photos for easy navigation to pictures with similar content. Further, these photo-level tags, related to an entire photograph, provide for targeting of advertising. Filch also provides users with the option to write comments related to individual areas of a photograph, however these area specific comments do not provide informational links or provide the basis for advertisement targeting.
In recent years, several web sites that provide for photo-tagging have arisen. For example, a user of FACEBOOK™, a commercially available site at facebook.com, allows members to identify other members within photos. This is accomplished by pointing to an area of the photo and associating an area with the name (and profile) of another member of the site, where the other member is generally selected from a network of friends. It further allows members to scribe a brief description of the picture to convey information the uploader deems appropriate. The photo tagging methodology utilized by the site is meant to provide an informational tool for viewers to navigate between profiles, rather than a tool for the site to target advertisements. As the system is not set up for advertising or information sharing purposes beyond simple social networking, it does not provide a means to identify inanimate objects. As such, a related drawback is that it does not provide for links based upon those inanimate objects or scenes. Further differences between this functionality and the functionality of the present invention include a lack of provision for saving profiles linked to the fundamental picture properties. As a consequence, identical photos uploaded by two friends do not have equivalent tags.
Another photo-tagging site that has recently arisen is RIYA™, which is a commercially available site at riya.com. The site enables users to search the existing reservoir of Internet pictures for objects. Specifically, it provides a search tool which allows users to identify an area (e.g., object, face) and find similar areas (objects, faces) across the available database of pictures. It further allows users to fine-tune the results based upon picture properties such as color, shape and texture of the photograph. The site also provides a “Personal search service” that allows users to train a search engine to come to recognize faces common within a user's pictures. It is premised that by honing the ability to recognize the faces of common subjects of pictures, the sharing of photographs is facilitated. The search/photo tagging methodology employed at the Riya site is purposed differently from the present invention and thus, when considering Riya tagging functionality from an informational linking and advertising perspective, it suffers from a number of drawbacks. Specifically, the methodology employed fails to describe a system of creating relevant and interesting tags that contain commentary and links, some of which will be paid for by advertisers. The Riya system does not provide for the monetization of tags through advertisement and the processes whereby consumers are enabled to help create that information and link those associations. Other limitations include, a lack of pop-up tag as a means of creating a “point to reference” tool or side-bar media space that is chosen at least in part based upon information provided by the user or links chosen by the user, restricted use of a tool box when selecting areas of a photograph, no provision for allowing users to define areas and select the linked information, no provision for integrating the site functionality with a “blog” or personal website or commercial website and no provision for allowing a third party processor to provide advertising based on picture content.
What is desired therefore is a system and method that creates new approaches to social networking, creates new streams of targeted advertising revenue and improves the targeting logic of existing streams of advertising revenue by allowing users to provide information related to objects and scenes within a digital image.